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Medicine has evolved and people are living longer. People also used to get married and have children at the age of 13. To not get medical attention for your child while you are pregnant, you are neglecting your child in my opinion. A parent has a responsibility in this day and age to provide a quality of life for that baby. You need prenatal care, you need vitamins, and medical advice so your child is born healthy. Back in the "olden days" as my grandmother calls it, you drank caffeine, ate grease and salt, and all of those no-nos of today. More babies are born healthy. Yes, you can still deliver your child at home and go back out and do manual labor in the fields if you want to that day, but it isn't necessarily the "right and most healthy" thing for your baby.

Answer by
Anonymous
at 11:25 AM on Jul. 12, 2010

You do realize that until the institution of medicine took over, that women didn't even go to the doctor to deliver, right?

I don't know that she needs the exam...Honestly other than taking the measurements, I opted out of ALL tests (except diabetes because of family history) and baby was fine. If I hadn't had a history, I wouldn't have that test either.

There was a high incidence of mothers and babies dying in the past before good medical care. Partly it was because they didn't understand about germs. These days there are ways to help babies with some conditions even before they are born, and there are reasons to keep an eye on how moms are doing, too.

well, i thought that we had a choice here in america if we wanted to get care or not, or who we get care from.
main reason why women and babies died during childbirth: DOCTORS not washing their hands. they would go from an "autopsy" or a very sick person to a childbirth and didn't wash their hands. so, the moms and babies were getting infected.
it's your choice to go to the dr, but for some people it's not. no need to bash on them for not going. they are doing what they think is right for them.

You do realize how many babies/women died because of pregnancy complications, breached babies, etc... I'm not saying she has to have the baby at a hospital- I'm saying she needs a medical professional to exam her... right?

I stopped going to the doctor at my 3rd trimester, and no one else would see me. Because my doctor I was seeing tried to break my water and strip my membranes a month early, and everytime I went in there he would see how far I was dilated. If I would have kept going my lo would have been born to early and would have been in the nicu. The hospital I went to said that I did the right thing by NOT going back to him.